Will Baum, LCSW

Once you begin considering that many physical symptoms may be stress related, not only do you react to your own aches and pains differently, the news starts to take on a different meaning.  That’s why Dr. David Schechter repeatedly asks in his  MindBody Workbook what kind of messages you’ve been getting in the media about pain symptoms.  Here, a couple of those very stories:

Fibromyalgia Affects Mental Health of Those Diagnosed and Their Spouses, Study Finds

Use of Alternative Therapy for Pain Treatment Increases With Age and Wealth

The message?  Different from Dr. Schechter’s.

For more about mind-body medicine, try Dr. Schecter’s website, this interview I did with therapist Alan Gordon, and/or the stress illness section of this site.

Strong reactions from depression/medication/flying-wary net commenters to a story that the FAA has changed policy and now will allow pilots to take one of four approved antidepressants.  The story, from MSNBC:

“We need to change the culture and remove the stigma associated with depression,” Babbitt said. “Pilots should be able to get the medical treatment they need so they can safely perform their duties.”

The L.A. Times joins the Tiger Woods-triggered sex addiction journalism spree:

Unlike compulsive gambling, which also is proposed for addition to the new DSM (to be called DSM-5), the proposed diagnosis — hypersexual disorder — stops short of categorizing the problem as an addiction, and for a reason.

“If we are looking at a disorder, it’s not clear what that disorder is,” said Michael Miner, a professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota who advised the DSM-5 committee on sexual disorders. “There is not an agreed-upon name. The research is in its infancy.”

CNN’s list of relief organizations is here.

From the L.A. Times:

A mounting pile of research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy can effectively treat anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bulimia and substance abuse problems. The method has performed as well as antidepressant medication in treating depression in recent studies. What’s more, patients receiving cognitive behavioral therapy have shown less likelihood of relapse than their medicated peers because the therapy teaches them how to handle their disorder.

But U.S. therapists have been reluctant to embrace the technique…